Red Dragon with, 7 heads, 10 horns and 7 crowns
Question: In Chapter 12 of Revelation, what was the next sign which appeared in Heaven whose tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the Earth?
V.3 And there appeared another sign in Heaven; and behold, a (b)great red dragon, having (c)7 heads, and 10 horns, and 7 crowns on his heads.
(a) "Travailed"; see notes in V.4 below.
(b) "Great red Dragon" is Satan. He here is threatening with annihilation the whole of the Jewish Nation (children of Israel), which he has been attempting since Abraham; see next verse. That effect is continual, all the time in the whole Earth. We know from Prophecy Satan will attempt to annihilate Israel at the time of the ‘Jacob’s Trouble’ which will be his most severe effort ever attempted.
Charles Welch discusses this in his book ‘This Prophecy’, and he theorises that the ‘Rapture’ references of 1Cor. 15:51 and 1Thess. 4:15-17 refer to the Jews of the Acts period and latterly Revelation, which may or may not have veracity. What is certain is that Christ Himself will stop Satan’s attempt, at its greatest effort; Dan. 7:25 Rev. 13 and 17, and corresponding verses.
(c) "7 heads", etc.; denotes universal Earthly power (Comp. App. 10 & 197: 6), the meaning derived originally from the division and hierarchy of the Roman Empire and its latter organisation of the “Holy Roman Empire”, morphing into the “Holy Roman Church”; the lower limbs of Dan. 2. These changes are under the auspices of “man’s Earthly rule”; which does not change until Rev. 1:10 due to Satan’s present acknowledged position as “prince of the power of the air”; “god of this world”, acknowledge by Christ and Paul; 2Cor. 4:4; John 12:31; 14:30 & 16:11.
These “heads, horns and crowns”, are all underpinned and empowered by the “Dragon”, who is Satan! It is therefore an ominous, threatening and deadly beast; which controls the Earth until the return of Christ Jesus (Rev. 19:11-16)!
V.4 And his tail dragged the (a)third part of the stars of Heaven, and cast them to the Earth: and the Dragon (b)is standing before the woman which is about to bring forth, in order to eat up her (c)child as soon as it was born.
(a) Satan, since his original fall, has persuaded to his cause many angelic creation which are numbered in Scripture (see V.9) as a third of all the angels of Heaven, which have done and are doing his bidding. The exact timing of his fall was when Satan as a son (created) of God rebelled against his Creator, and claimed equality, (Ezk. 28:12-19).
Satan is a well-kept secret. Although known of from Scripture he is not taken seriously by people, and is even regarded as a sort of joke, or figure of Halloween imagery. Almost, if not all of the world's misery is attributable to him, even though Almighty God usually gets the blame from humans. Almost everybody at some time has blamed The Almighty for some misfortune, which in fact should be laid at the door of Satan, or human fallen nature, or both. There is no more powerful entity on Earth at the present time than Satan, (except for the Holy Spirit).
Our Lord Himself acknowledged Satan as the prince of this world (John 12:31), (John 14:30) & (John 16:11). The Apostle Paul writing under the influence of the Holy Spirit, called Satan, "the prince of the power of the air", (Eph. 2:2). These and many other Bible references show the power that is at present Satan's, and people will find to their cost that he is real, and behind all of the evil events, trends and control of humans that Paul wrote about so vividly and accurately to Timothy 2000 years ago, (2Tim. 3).
(b) The A.V. says "stood"; but the correction "is standing", and will continue to do so until he is broken "by no human hand", (Dan. 8:25) and then bound in the bottomless pit.
(c) "Child"; this is Jesus the Christ (anointed), who is at present at the Right Hand of the Majesty, in Heaven, awaiting the time that His enemies are made His footstool towards the end of “Jacob’s Trouble” (Jer. 30:7); and the help given to the suffering Jews will be via Christ's Spirit as described in Chp. 11:4; and elsewhere.
Only Christ can be with Jehovah God on His throne after He became the first fruit in resurrection. Only He has the sanctity to be with the Father. On the contrary the Jews who are at the present still "Lo-Ammi", (not My people) are yet to see, accept and mourn Christ whom they pierced (Zech. 12:10), only then will their cleansing begin, and together with the righteous resurrected Jews, form the reborn, new, Nation of Israel, the eventual (Jeshurun = upright) (the ideal Israel).
There is a curious verse (Isa. 66:7) which seems to say that a child (Nation) will be born before the normal travail of labour. However; the "before" (Str. 2962) is probably mistranslated in the A.V., and should read "delayed", "suspended", "not yet", see: ( Israel's New Birth: ). The meaning being that the Nation being brought to being is suspended! That prophecy foreshadows the rejection of Christ by Israel, and therefore their own rejected ("Lo-Ammi"), state for 2000 years. After the Zech. 12:10 experience, the rest of Isa. 66 applies and is wonderful for Israel and other peoples of God. That a Nation is being brought forth cannot be disputed, as in the following verse (Isa. 66.8), Zion is travailed! Verses 7 & 8 therefore seem to contradict, except for the above explanation, and a filling full of the prophecy. It is supremely significant, that as soon as Antichrist breaks his peace agreement with Israel, (2nd ½ of 70th week Dan.) Chapter 11 of Rev. and its events start, which correspond with Isa. 66:8, "for as soon as Zion travaileth, she brought forth her sons (children)". This is the birth of the new Nation of Israel. The one that will have such Earthly blessing in the 1000 years of Jehovah / Christ's reign on Earth, whose borders will be as the promise made to Abraham by Jehovah (Gen. 12:2-3), (Gen. 15:18), (Jer. 32:37-42), (Jer. 33:14-16), (Jer. 33:25-26), (Ezk. 11:17-20), (Ezk. 34) & (Ezk. 47:15-21), and many other references throughout Scripture. The birth of this Nation is one of the great events in the plan of Jehovah Zebaoth on Earth, and will be greeted with great joy in Heaven and Earth, as it corresponds with the praise of the Heavenly hosts for the vanquishing of the Evil One on Earth (Rev. 19:1), which was prophesied in Psalm 104:35.
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